Patterns formed on the Ca2+ oscillation system. An array of 201 cells x 201 cells is assumed. U8 = 0.25 or 0.5 and p = 0.06. Other parameter values are obtained from the original model [42]: v0 = 1, kf = 1, v1 = 7.3, VM2 = 65, VM3 = 500, K2 = 1, KR = 2, and KA = 0.9 except for kz = 3.55. Initial conditions are Zi= 1.6 and Yi= 0.2 at time t = 0. (Units are arbitrary.) The two cells indicated by the red squares (20 cells from the center in an opposite direction) release Ca2+ mobilizing molecules at the different rates: U8= 0.25 for the cell on the top-left, and U8 = 0.5 for the cell on the bottom-right. The concentration of Ca2+(Zi) is shown in the figure: low concentration in black and high concentration in white.

Illustration of cooperative heterogeneous cell populations where leaders are supposed to explore and detect the tumor cells. Followers carrying the drug payload are controlled by the molecules secreted by the leaders; the molecules diffuse through a complex ECS filled with many diffusion barriers. The background image is a scanning electron micrograph of a small cancerous tumor filling an alveolus of the human lung.

From the paper: Defining Communication at the Bottom; IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications; Issue: September 2015

Communication system over a bacterial cable.

From the paper: Capacity of electron-based communication over bacterial cables: the full-CSI case; IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications; Issue: September 2015

The communities formed by different strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria: (a) small micro-colonies formed by wild types, (b) no micro-colonies formed by mutants that cannot produce Psl, (c) large micro-colonies formed by mutants that overproduce polysaccharide Psl.

From the paper: A Dynamic Network Formation Model for Understanding Bacterial Self-Organization into Micro-Colonies; IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications; Issue: September 2015

The communities formed by the strain ∆P psl/P BAD − psl with 1% arabinose at different time intervals: (a) after 10h and 30m from the beginning of the experiment, after 11h from the beginning of the experiment, (c) after 11h and 30m from the beginning of the experiment.

From the paper: A Dynamic Network Formation Model for Understanding Bacterial Self-Organization into Micro-Colonies; IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications; Issue: September 2015

A Nanonetwork – communication range is represented as dotted circles

From the paper: DRIH-MAC: A Distributed Receiver-Initiated Harvesting-aware MAC for NanoNetworks; IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications; Issue: September 2015

Absorption Loss at Different Distances for Water

From the paper: DRIH-MAC: A Distributed Receiver-Initiated Harvesting-aware MAC for NanoNetworks; IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications; Issue: September 2015

A general representation of the proposed nanopore readout sleeve.

From the paper: Internal Readout System for Molecular Recorders; IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological, and Multi-Scale Communications; Issue: September 2015

About IEEE Transactions on Molecular, Biological and Multi-scale Communications

As a result of recent advances in MEMS/NEMS and systems biology, as well as the emergence of synthetic bacteria and lab/process-on-a-chip techniques, it is now possible to design chemical “circuits”, custom organisms, micro/nanoscale swarms of devices, and a host of other new systems at small length scales, and across multiple scales (e.g., micro to macro). This success opens up a new frontier for interdisciplinary signaling techniques using chemistry, biology, novel electron transfer, and other principles not previously examined.

This journal is devoted to the principles, design, and analysis of signaling and information systems that use physics beyond conventional electromagnetism, particularly for small-scale and multi-scale applications. This includes: molecular, quantum, and other physical, chemical and biological (and biologically-inspired) techniques; as well as new signaling techniques at these scales.

As the boundaries between communication, sensing and control are blurred in these novel signaling systems, research contributions in a variety of areas are invited. Original research articles on one or more of the following topics are within the scope of the journal: mathematical modeling, information/communication-theoretic or network-theoretic analysis, networking, implementations and laboratory experiments, systems biology, data-starved or data-rich statistical analyses of biological systems, industrial applications, biological circuits, biosystems analysis and control, information/communication theory for analysis of biological systems, unconventional electromagnetism for small or multi-scale applications, and experiment-based studies on information processes or networks in biology. Contributions on related topics would also be considered for publication.